Monday, June 8, 2015

The Wonderful Wizard of Instagram: Marketing Opportunity Or More Of The Same?

A few years ago, blogs and industry pubs were full of hopeful predictions of how Facebook and Twitter would usher in a new age of cost-free or low-cost marketing. Brands would "authentically" earn attention, and friends would see each other's likes and retweets, creating viral success for brands.

So, what have we learned from the brand marketing experiences on Facebook and Twitter?

Have marketers realized that in social channels controlled by consumers, brand messaging is so much less welcome than content from friends and family that it is impossible for most companies to earn attention, acquire new customers or generate marketing ROI?

It does not seem so. The lesson marketers seem to have gleaned from the past few years is that something is wrong with Facebook and Twitter--they are boring and black-and-white--so let's instead shift our attention to the Technicolor world of Instagram! In the last couple of months, my email box and feeds have been full of hype for Instagram, and the justifications are exactly the same as they were for Facebook and Twitter back in 2010.

For example, "Why Your Business Needs an Instagram Account in 2015" contains no business justification whatsoever. The reason your business "needs" Instagram, the author argues, is because "Instagram is exploding," you can "get creative" and "show people what you do behind the scenes, not just what you're selling." Does any of this sound familiar to you? Remember in 2010 when Facebook was "exploding," brands could use it to "get creative" and the key to success was to "be human"?

In "A Three Step Guide to Winning at Instagram," the author never once suggests how to convert pretty pictures and likes into business wins (particularly on a social network that does not permit links within posts). Instead, it offers the same tired advice brands got about pictures on Facebook and Twitter: Image quality is everything; Consistency is key; Photography is aspirational. If those tips did not work in Facebook and Twitter, what would lead us to believe it will be any different on Instagram?

One analyst firm promoted its Instagram 2015 report by noting the social network offers "100 percent organic reach," unlike Facebook, "which inserted a paywall between brands and their communities." First, Instagram handles followers in the same way as Twitter, offering no filter or algorithm for the people following the brand, so there is no reason to think brands will not suffer the same fate on Instagram as on Twitter. Second, as we have learned on Twitter, there is no such thing as "100 percent organic reach"--the vast majority of posts on Twitter and Instagram are not seen by followers because they are ephemeral, disappearing rapidly in feeds that are not monitored 24/7. And lastly, what do we expect will happen as brand presence grows on Instagram, consumers become increasingly tired of brand content and Instagram improves and expands its pay offerings? Put simply, Instagram 2017 will look a lot like Twitter 2015--decreasing organic engagement, increasing costs for paid media and disappointed brands.

Will some brands succeed on Instagram? Sure, just as some have succeeded in Facebook or Twitter, but this has been the exception and not the rule, as there is little evidence brands are delivering marketing success on a widespread basis. Despite billions of dollars spent on content strategies, social media management platforms and engagement-building campaigns, the percentage of online sales attributable to social media in 2015 stands at a mere 1%, one point less than it was last year and more than 90% less than acquisition from email, CPC or affiliate sources.

Some will argue, as they did on last night's Beancast, that this sort of click-attribution is a poor measure of social value, and I would agree--if brands were earning significant levels of engagement. But in a world where Facebook Organic Zero is approaching and Twitter engagement is less than banner ads', what reason do we have to believe there are broad and unmeasured benefits in a channel where so few people see and engage with brands? (Case in point: As I type this, the past week's posts for McDonald's, which has 57 million fans on Facebook, each have earned fewer than 500 likes and 35 shares--one of the largest brands on Facebook is engaging 25% fewer people with each post than walk into a single of the company's 35,000 restaurant locations in an average day.)

As I have argued in the past, there is undoubtedly value in social for a select few brands in the right verticals or that have built the right customer relationships through actions, products and services, but too many brands are struggling to make themselves appealing and engaging on social networks when they have failed to do so in the real world. Distrusted brands with weak customer relationships that try to be interesting on Instagram will be like Oz frantically pulling levers to create distracting visual effects while demanding, "Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain!"

Pay no attention to that brand, er,
I mean man behind the curtain!

The signs are not difficult to read, and the future is not hard to see. We are a decade or more into the social era, and we know how it works. Instagram is sufficiently similar to Facebook and Twitter that expecting a different outcome is, as the saying goes, the definition of insanity.

Social media is a powerful platform for consumers. It can also be powerful for brands that unleash Word of Mouth and earn true advocacy with their products and services. But we now have too many years of social media experience to think that attractive pictures on Instagram will deliver marketing results outside of select niches. Heck, even some in the fashion industry, which recently honored Instagram's founder with an award, are beginning to question the impact of Instagram (and if hot models and stylish clothes snapped by the world's most experienced photographers may not deliver business results for style brands, what do you think your social team will accomplish?)

You want your brand to succeed in Instagram? Put down the camera and give your customers experiences they will want to capture and share. Or you can try to make your brand fascinating and creative in Instagram, but just remember--even the great and powerful Oz was smart enough to know he would eventually be discovered and keep an escape balloon at the ready.

3 comments:

Brands typically don't look at things from the customer POV. Most of the time the people that rise to the top or the org chart are the people that really "know the business", not the people that really know the customer.

I think of insurance companies. Their primary value prop: Pay us a little bit over time regardless of your current situation and then when something unexpected happens and you're in a jam because you don't have your own reserve, we promise to cover the difference or stand in the gap, etc. So what the bottomline? Premiums and Claim Payments, right? Need validation of this? A look at almost any insurance company's Facebook page reveals a stunningly high percentage of the RPO comments and comments on the shares are people upset over claim denials.

And yet, do insurance brands share content about how many claims they paid last month? Nope. Do they share stories about claimants who's bacon they saved? Rarely. Instead, they share content about the danger lightning strikes this time of year. Why? Because it's what PR and Compliance have authorized - safe, easy, and feels like we're being a good citizen. Does it do anything to drive interest in coverage? No.

And then at the annual or semi-annual or quarterly Come-to-Jesus meeting, the marketers all get 40 lashes and possibly fired for lack of ROI.

Social/Digital, call it what you want. It's really an enterprise thing. What technology is doing to business is the same thing it's done to politics and government. It's opening the Kimono. There's no where for flawed business execution to hide now. UGC exposes cultural problems and impacts HR & Recruiting, exposes service issues and prevents sales, and the list goes on and on. On the flip side, Social is enabling the spread of new solutions like Uber, AirBnB, etc. via, as you correctly say, Word of Mouth.

Word of Mouth is the key. Always has been, always will be. As you yourself can attest to from your hugely successful days at USAA, technology simply amplifies the core corporate and human dynamics, right?

I like your comments about insurance companies and what they post. I recently had an interview at an insurance company for a social position. I said that in a channel where emotive storytelling is so powerful, I didn't understand why insurance brands DON'T focus on insurance success stories. ("My husband died and it was tough, but thanks to PruMetNY Life, I was able to stay in the home and even retire early" or "My dad died when I was only 16, and I miss him every day, but he loved me and my brother enough to leave behind enough so that we could both go to college. I think about my dad and PruMetNY Life every day and how much they positively impacted my life.")

The response was that this was too "negative"--all that focus on death and loss--and I was astounded. This is, after all, what life insurance is all about. They wanted to focus on how insurance gave people confidence--which they deemed to be more "positive"--and I pointed out that people who have never experienced the product benefits cannot tell others who haven't experience the product benefits anything new.

In any event, as you point out, there are opportunities to post pertinent brand-building content but--and its a big but--with declining organic reach, insurance brands cannot kid themselves about their chances to get through to users' news feeds and to gain substantial organic reach. Knowing this, insurance companies would be well advised to think about modest ways to develop content rather than blowing the budget. A dollar spent on paid media will reach an audience but a dollar spent on organic media simply won't go as far.

In the end, you are correct. All these social/digital/mobile tools are about providing better services and products to people, not about spamming them in new ways. COmpanies that create great experiences earn great WOM and succeed in social media. Companies that don't provide great experiences cannot "game" themselves to success with content--at least not consistently.

I completely agree with you Augie, that on generic social media real engagement is not possible. It's inevitable that organic reach on Instagram will drop drastically in the very near future.

Here in The Netherlands I work for a startup that is offering businesses their own branded social network. Just as Nate Elliot from Forrestor has commented, I believe that businesses that choose to engage with their customers via social media, should do so on their own social media platform and capitalize on all the benefits that brings. I believe that the most important factor is creating a level playing field for organic interaction between consumers instead of managing it as a conversion funnel - a misconception about the workings of social media I see often.

A large percentage of the conversations I have with business from different markets and on c-level and below, I see that many are in a way still ‘stuck’ in the ‘old’ paradigm of engaging via generic social media instead of using it as a road sign.

About Experience: The Blog

The world is changing rapidly, both for consumers and brands. Consumers are more empowered than ever before and traditional business models are under attack.

In an increasingly social, mobile and real-time world, brands are created not by the messages they broadcast but by the experiences they offer--ones that create empathy, build trust, earn loyalty, spur Word of Mouth, encourage collaboration, and provide ever greater value to customers in innovative ways. On this blog, we explore how brands are built and business improved via Customer Experience Management, purposeful corporate culture, social and mobile business strategy and collaborative economy models.

You are welcome to participate, criticize, praise, critique, expand, or correct the information and opinions found on this blog. Spam, off-topic, or crude comments will be deleted, but all others are welcome.

About the Author

I am Augie Ray, Research Director covering customer experience at Gartner. I conduct and publish research and advise Fortune 500 clients on the value, process, measurement and tools of customer experience. This includes topics such as Voice of the Customer (VoC), personas, customer journey maps, CX governance, and customer experiences metrics that are leading metrics of brand success.

Previously, I was Director of Global Voice of Customer Strategy for a Fortune 100 financial service company. My background includes more than 20 years of experience in digital, brand, customer experience and social media.

In the past, I led social business at USAA, a firm recognized for its innovative use of communities and social customer care within the financial service industry. I also consulted and published analysis as a Forrester analyst covering digital marketing and social media. In addition, I led a diverse $9 million agency team with specialties in digital development, digital experiential marketing and community strategy.

The future will bring a great deal of innovation that offers opportunities to organizations that are agile and willing to cannibalize their own business models (but it will severely challenge those organizations that cannot.)

The views expressed on this website/blog are mine alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of my employer.